DEOGARH/BERHAMPUR: A day after eggs and tomatoes were hurled at the car of Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Dasburma at Chhatrapur, Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak faced similar protest in Deogarh on Tuesday. The incident occurred near Kurad village, four km from Deogarh town.
According to reports, Nayak had visited a health centre at Hatibari and from there, he went to the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) in Sambalpur. From the DHH, he was going to Deogarh when at Kurad, some persons standing along the road hurled eggs at his vehicle.
However, Nayak went ahead and visited Deogarh DHH. The Minister went round different wards, SNCU of the hospital and interacted with patients.
The egg hurling incident took the police and BJD workers by surprise and no police complaint has been registered yet.
Deogarh District Congress Committee president Sem Hembrum said Congress workers were behind the incident. They did so to protest against the lack of health care facilities in the district and irregularities in NFSA beneficiary list. He accused the State Government of being indifferent towards the district.
However, the Inspector-in-Charge of the Deogarh Police station, Sudarshan Jena denied of any such incident.
Meanwhile, three Congress supporters including a student leader of Science College at Chhatrapur in Ganjam district were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the attack on Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister. They are Arun Nayak (19), dramatic secretary of Chhatrapur Science College, N Hadu Reddy (34) and Kalia Roul (33). The FIR was registered against them following a case lodged by the Minister’s piloting officer, Ram Chandra Behera.
The incident had taken place near the Science College when the Dasburma was going to attend the golden jubilee function of Berhampur University on Monday. While his car was crossing the Science College, a group of students - allegedly belonging to NSUI - threw eggs at the vehicle.
Ganjam Congress Committee president, Bhagaban Gantayat condemned the police action and said they were demonstrating in a democratic manner to protest the massive irregularities in National Food Security Act (NFSA) in the district.
On Sunday too, a group of Congress workers had hurled eggs and tomatoes at Dasburma’s vehicle in Puri when he was returning to Circuit House after paying tributes at the samadhi of Biju babu.
